Vitumbua - East African Coconut Rice Pancakes (2024)

In East Africa, these Coconut Rice Pancakes called Vitumbua are a common breakfast. They are gluten free, dairy free, vegan, so soft and fluffy! The texture is so incredible, you won’t believe these don’t have any regular flour in them!

These East African Coconut Rice Pancakes have my whole heart! My whole family goes crazy for Vitumbua! They are slightly crunchy around the edges, so fluffy in the middle. Perfect for serving with tea!

Serve them with chai tea for the full East African experience!

These pancakes are eaten in a number of Swahili countries but especially in Tanzania.

Here is my take on these delicious pancakes! I have been making these with both white rice and brown rice and it goes great both ways. Also, it’s a great way for me to use up the brown rice that has been sitting in my pantry since 2020. Hmmm!

Another popular African snack or breakfast food which you should totally try is Puff Puff. Here is our guide on How To Make Puff Puff.

Rice Pancakes Recipe

This is a Rice Pancakes Recipe that is both gluten-free and dairy free! It is also ridiculously easy to make!

You just dump all ingredients for the rice pancakes into a blender and blend to form the batter. Then let it rest for about 30 minutes before cooking the pancakes.

Ingredients

Here are the ingredients you need for Vitumbua.

• Rice. I used Jasmine rice. Any rice you have on hand would work. Brown rice would work as well.
• Coconut Milk. The coconut milk should be unsweetened.
• Sugar. For sweetness. Put as little or as much as you’d like. This recipe yields Rice Pancakes that aren’t too sweet which is great so you can top the pancakes with syrup, honey a dusting of powdered sugar, or any sweet toppings you like.
• Yeast. For helping the batter rise.
• Salt. For flavor.
• Ground Cardamom. For flavor, and an East African essential. Check the spice aisle of you local grocery store for cardamom or you could also get it from Amazon.
• Oil for cooking the pancakes. Any neutral-tasting oil would work. I used vegetable oil.

See the recipe card at the bottom of this post for quantities.

Substitutions

Trying the following substitutions when making these Rice Pancakes:

• Brown rice -instead of white rice you could use brown rice which contains more fiber.
• Milk – use another plant-based milk like almond milk or cashew milk. You could also use regular milk if that works for you,
• Honey – instead of sugar you could use honey, maple syrup, or agave for sweetening the batter.

How To Make Vitumbua

Here is how to make Vitumbua in 4 easy steps!

1. Pour water over rice and let it soak in the fridge overnight.

2. Place rice and all the other ingredients except the oil into a blender and blend to form the batter.

3. Keep the batter in a warm place to rise. Note that here, my oven is turned off. My oven is often slightly warm so it makes the perfect spot for keeping batter to rise.

4. Place a Vitumbua pan on medium heat. heat up for 2 minutes then add half a teaspoon of oil. Place the batter into each hole and cook on one side for 2 minutes then flip to the other side and cook for another 2 minutes.

Equipment

To make these pancakes turn out the traditional shape, you need a Vitumbua pan, also known as an Aebleskiver or Ebelskiver pan. I got mine from a thrift store but you could get it from Amazon.

It also helps to have a high-powered blender to blend all the ingredients into a smooth batter. I love my Blendtec blender for this.

Storage

Store the leftovers in an airtight bag in the fridge for 2-3 days.

Also, Check Out These African Recipes

Watch Me Making It

Watch me making Vitumbua, East African Coconut Rice Pancakes in the YouTube Video below. To see more videos of me cooking as soon as they are published, please subscribe to my YouTube channel and click on the notification bell.

Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟rating in the recipe card below & if you really like this recipe, please consider a comment further down. Thank you!